Notes & Quotes: #19 Michigan 3, #21 Saint Louis 2
12/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Michigan advances to the Round of 16 for the second straight season, and just the second time in program history. Last season, Michigan faced No. 1-ranked and eventual national champion Penn State in the Round of 16, falling in three sets.
With the win over Saint Louis, Michigan climbed above .500 at 9-8 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
Beth Karpiak posted the third-best single-match hitting percentage (.606) in Michigan NCAA Tournament history. Karpiak also owns the top spot, hitting .632 versus Miami (Ohio) in opening round action last season.
With her 52-assist performance Friday night, Lexi Zimmerman took over the top spot with 215 career NCAA Tournament assists at Michigan. Zimmerman passed Lisa Gamalski, who posted 207 from 2001-04.
Michigan had five players reach double-figure digs for the second straight match after having just one such performance during the regular season.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
Opening statement... "I'm extremely proud of our team, the way they played and fought. One of the players said in the locker room that it wasn't pretty, but it was a great, competitive match, and that's true. You have to be able to win points at the right time. Saint Louis is a very competitive team and they're also very skilled. They run some things that are very hard. Every time we faltered, they were opportunistic and jumped all over it. I was really proud of our players being able to fight through that. Also, I'm incredibly proud of our seniors this weekend. We've said all season that you'll go as far as your seniors will take you, so we rode their backs this weekend. Kerry Hance had two really good nights. She was the top digger in the gym last night and she was the top on our team tonight. Beth (Karpiak) got the kills tonight and that's just outrageous. I'm just very proud of how our seniors played. I thought our team played a very balanced game. We could utilize a lot of people when we controlled the ball well enough. They gave you some things to use on the right side of the court. Both (Megan) Bower and Beth did a really good job behind the setter. We're excited about going to the next level and we're excited about getting the chance to compete in the next round."
On coming from behind to win..."It's a little bit of skill and a lot of luck. Our kids didn't give up or get frustrated in that situation. We played a lot of 15-point games this week in practice because we figured that at this point in the year, if you're going to advance, you're going to do it in long battles. We hadn't played a lot of fifth gamers this year and haven't been successful in our most-recent ones. So we figured we would play a lot and we didn't win a lot of them in practice, but I thought it helped them get ready to compete for it."
U-M Senior Middle Blocker Beth Karpiak
On Michigan's depth advantage... "I think we're a really balanced team and we have a lot of weapons in the front row. Like coach said earlier, if we gave them anything, they attacked really hard. I think that's why they were able to stay in so hard, but when they decided to take away one of our options, we had another one to hit them with. That's why we pulled ahead."
